2. Train hits killed 49 elephants in 3 years

In 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) released ‘Eco-friendly measures to mitigate impacts of linear infrastructure’, an advisory document for mitigating human-animal conflicts. Despite this advisory, and many others issued by conservationists and organisations, deaths of wild animals in road and railway accidents have continued unabated.

The MoEFCC told the Rajya Sabha, in response to a question by MP T. Subbarami Reddy, that 49 elephants were killed in Railway accidents between 2016-18 (nine in 2015-16, 21 casualties in 2016-17 and 19 in 2017-18). In the same 3-year period, three tigers were killed in road accidents while eight tigers were mowed down by trains.

Three lions died in a train accident in the Amerli district of Gujarat in December 2018. Prior to this, 10 lions died in railway and road accidents between 2016-2018.

West Bengal and Assam together accounted for 37 out of the 49 deaths of elephants on train tracks across the country. While the number of elephant casualties on railway tracks in West Bengal has fallen from five in 2015-16 to three in 2016-17 to two in 2017-18, the number of elephants dying in railway accidents in Assam have increased in the same period — the State recorded three elephant deaths by accidents in 2015-16, ten in 2016-17 and 14 in 2017-18.

According to the Ministry, several notifications have been issued, including one on December 28, 2016, to Chief Wildlife Wardens, to implement precautionary measures for minimising elephant deaths caused by train accidents.

3. IMD to give advance forecast on storms

Scientists at the India Meteorological Department are working to create models to forecast thunderstorms six to 12 hours in advance, officials said. Early warnings will give States more time to respond, they said.

4. NGT asks State govt. to check illegal mining

A month after 15 miners were trapped in a coal mine, search operations for which is still underway, a three-member committee of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the Meghalaya Police to investigate into nearly 1,200 cases of illegal quarrying across the State. The green tribunal had imposed a blanket ban on coal mining and transportation in Meghalaya in 2014, citing unscientific methods and absence of safety measures.

5. Hayflick limit

Biology

Also known as the Hayflick phenomenon, this refers to the natural limit that exists on the number of times a normal human cell population divides before cell division stops. After each cell division, the telomeres at the ends of the cell decrease in length slightly. This process continues until the cell becomes so short that it cannot divide further. The phenomenon is named after American anatomist Leonard Hayflick who first proposed the idea after conducting a study of human fetal cells in 1961. It was earlier believed that cells can divide forever and are thus immortal. The Hayflick limit differs across various organisms with the human cell dividing about 50 to 70 times over its lifespan.

6. Govt. re-promulgates triple talaq ordinance

The government has re-promulgated the ordinance banning the practice of instant triple talaq (‘talaq-e-biddat’).

Under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Ordinance, 2019, issued on Saturday, divorcing through instant triple talaq will be illegal, void and would attract a jail term of three years for the husband. A Bill to convert the earlier ordinance, issued in September, 2018, was cleared by the Lok Sabha in December and was pending in the Rajya Sabha. Since the Bill could not get the Parliamentary approval, the fresh ordinance was issued. The Cabinet last week approved its re-issuance.

Seeking to allay fears that the proposed law could be misused, the government has included certain safeguards, such as adding a provision of bail for the accused before trial. These amendments were cleared by the Cabinet on August 29, 2018.

7. Gujarat to implement 10% quota

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani announced on Sunday that the State would implement the 10% quota in government jobs and higher education for the economically backward sections in the general category from January 14. This makes Gujarat the first State to implement the quota.

“The economically weaker sections from the general category communities will get 10% reservation in admissions to higher education and government jobs, starting Uttarayan on January 14,” Mr. Rupani said.

In a press release, the State government said the new quota would be implemented in admissions and jobs which were advertised before January 14 but for which the actual process for recruitment or admissions had not started before January 14.

8. At mini 2+2, India, U.S. review progress on pacts

India and the U.S. reviewed the progress on finalising two key agreements during the 2+2 intercession meeting last week, apart from taking stock of the overall defence cooperation. The agreements are the Industrial Security Annex (ISA) and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation (BECA), a foundational agreement.

“This was to follow up on the 2+2 dialogue and to keep the official-level dialogue going. The two sides reviewed the decisions taken at 2+2 and also exchanged notes on developments in the Indo-Pacific and the region, broadly the countries of interest. Also, the bilateral defence cooperation was reviewed, especially the greater Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) and the first tri-service exercise which will take place later this year,” an official source said.

The inaugural 2+2 dialogue was held last September and was chaired by the Defence and External Affairs Ministers and their U.S. counterparts. The third foundational agreement, Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement, was signed on the sidelines. As the next step in furthering defence cooperation, negotiations are on to conclude the ISA and BECA.

The U.S. has already shared a draft of BECA, the last foundational agreement to be signed. “We have a working draft [BECA] which we are looking at. It came some time before the Defence Minister’s visit to Washington,” the official said.

9. India to grow crops for UAE, Saudi Arabia

Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu announced here on Sunday that the UAE and Saudi Arabia had decided to use India as a base to address their food security concerns.

Mr. Prabhu was speaking to presspersons after meeting delegates from the two countries, along with representatives from 44 others, at a summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry here.

“The UAE and Saudi Arabia will use India as a base in addressing their social security concerns. For the first time, India’s export policy identifies the potential of agriculture along with horticulture, dairy, plantation and fisheries,” Mr. Prabhu said. The farm-to-port project will be similar to a special economic zone but in the style of a corporatised farm, where crops would be grown keeping a specific UAE market in mind. The concept has been accepted by both governments.

10. Iran summons Polish envoy over hosting of summit

Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned a senior Polish diplomat to protest at Poland jointly hosting a global summit with the United States focussed on West Asia, particularly Iran, state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said the summit — to be held in Warsaw over February 13-14 — would focus on stability and security in the region, including the ”important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilising influence”.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry official told Poland’s charge d’affaires in Tehran that Iran saw the decision to host the meeting as a “hostile act against Iran” and warned that Tehran could reciprocate, IRNA added. “Poland’s charge d’affaires provided explanations about the conference and said it was not anti-Iran,” it added.

The Polish Foreign Ministry confirmed that the meeting took place on Saturday.

On Friday, Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif criticised Poland for hosting the meet and tweeted: ”Polish Govt can’t wash the shame: while Iran saved Poles in WWII, it now hosts desperate anti-Iran circus.” Mr. Zarif was referring to Iran hosting more that 1,00,000 Polish refugees during the Second World War.

11. Tsipras to call confidence vote after resignations

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday said he would call a confidence vote in his government after his coalition ally quit, leaving him bereft of a parliamentary majority. Earlier, Defence Minister Panos Kammenos resigned in protest at a deal ending a long-running dispute with Macedonia over its name, saying he was taking his other six Ministers in Cabinet with him.

12. Govt. plans technology centres for MSMEs

The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) will develop 20 technology centres, along with extension centres across the country in another 3-5 years.

According to Sudhir Garg, Joint Secretary of the Union Ministry of MSME, these centres would come up at an investment of ₹200 crore each. There are plans to have about 100 extension centres, each at an investment of ₹20 crore. “We are identifying locations. These will come up in the next three to five years. The aim is to ensure that maximum [number of] units are benefited from the facilities,” he said.

As many as 18 tool rooms are operational in the country and 15 more are in different stages of development or have started functioning. These tool rooms are specific to electronics, general engineering and high-end engineering sectors.

They have modern technology machinery and testing equipment and the services are offered to industries at a competitive price.

With the development of technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality, the manufacturing units in the MSME sector need to have access to these.

The Ministry is creating trained manpower in virtual reality through the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC). It has also developed training modules that use virtual reality and these will be launched across the country through the NSIC in a couple of months.

13. Noted writer Neelum Saran Gour bags The Hindu Prize for fiction

Noted English writer Neelum Saran Gour, author of Requiem in Raga Janki and Bengali writer and socio-political activist Manoranjan Byapari, author of Interrogating my Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit, bagged The Hindu Prize 2018 for fiction and non-fiction respectively at The Hindu Lit for Life 2019 here on Sunday.

N. Ravi, Publisher and former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu presented the award to Ms. Gour. In her acceptance speech, Ms. Gour said she was short of words to describe the feeling and thanked the jury for the award. The award includes a citation and a cash prize of ₹5 lakh.

Mr. Ravi said literature and writing have been of particular interest to The Hindu as a newspaper and The Hindu Prize for Fiction was instituted in 2010 to recognise excellence in Indian writing in English. “Since then, we have been gratified that the number of books coming for consideration, the quality of writing and the variety of themes have all grown substantially.”

Director of The Hindu Group of Publications and Festival Director and Curator of The Hindu Lit for Life Nirmala Lakshman and members of the jury — Malayalam writer Paul Zacharia, writer and author Githa Hariharan, writer and critic Radha Chakravarty, poet A.J. Thomas and poet and artist Arundhathi Subramaniam were present on the occasion.

14. Coming, a film on bear that served in Second World War

During Second World War, Wojciech Narebski and his fellow Polish servicemen had to lift crate after heavy metal crate of artillery. Fortunately for them, one of the soldiers had superhuman strength: Corporal Wojtek, a Syrian brown bear.

“When he saw that we were struggling, he’d want to help… He’d come over, grab a crate and carry it to the truck,” Mr. Narebski, now 93, was speaking of his days with Wojtek in the 22nd Artillery Supply Company.

This can be heavy work, even for a bear. When Wojtek got tired, he would simply stack one crate on top of the other, “which also helped us, because we didn’t have to lift the crate off the ground,” recounted the veteran who spent two and a half years with the friendly giant he considered a brother.

15. Nobel-winning scientist loses honorary titles

Nobel laureate James Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA helix and father of the Human Genome Project, has been stripped of honorary titles at the laboratory where he worked for four decades, following “reprehensible” remarks on race and ethnicity.

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the New York facility which also has a school named after him, said it was acting in response to his remarks made in a television documentary aired this month.

The 90-year-old geneticist resigned under fire from his laboratory in 2007 after telling a British newspaper that people of African descent tend to have lower intelligence. However, in the new documentary titled American Masters: Decoding Watson, when asked about his views on race in the decade since his departure from the lab, Mr. Watson said he stood by his former remarks, citing the difference in IQ tests results to suggest black inferiority.

16. New species of antibiotic resistant bacteria found

Researchers have discovered new species of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the blood of two patients in China, according to a study. The study showed that the patients were carrying unidentified species of Enterobacter huaxiensis and Enterobacter chuandaensis that did not respond to penicillin or cephalosporin group of antibiotics.

17. Abbreviations:

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC)

Human Spaceflight Programme (HSP)

National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)

18. Things to Remember:

Central Vigilance Commissioner K.V. Chowdary

19. Improve your Vocabulary:

promulgate

Meaning – Promote or make widely known (an idea or cause)

Example – ‘these objectives have to be promulgated within the organization’

Current Affairs is an important GK topic for UPSC, NDA, CDS, AFCAT, Air force X & Y Groups, SSC, and other competitive exams. Every year in UPSC, SSC and Bank there are few questions from Current Affairs